


Flag on the Play

by mcgarrygirl78



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-11
Updated: 2014-10-11
Packaged: 2018-02-20 18:26:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2438504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcgarrygirl78/pseuds/mcgarrygirl78
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Losing team does winning team’s paperwork for a month.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flag on the Play

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the **All I Want for Christmas is Hotch/Prentiss-athon**. I was looking to write something different. The snowball fight thing is a bit overdone so I was pretty happy when this came to mind. It wasn’t always easy to write as I, like Spencer, am not that well acquainted with football.

“It’s on.” Rossi came out of his office and started walking into the bullpen.

“Yes!” Morgan got up from his desk and so did Prentiss. They both grabbed their jackets.

“What’s on?” Reid asked, looking up from his laptop.

“Follow us, Reid; bring your galoshes and jacket.” Prentiss replied.

Spencer quickly changed out of his sensible brown oxfords into his black galoshes. Grabbing his coat, he jumped up and followed his teammates. As JJ and Penelope came running up the hall to join them, Rossi looked behind him at their Unit Chief bringing up the rear.

“Hotch, you're not going with us dressed like that.” he said.

“What's wrong with the way I'm dressed?”

“Should I remind you of what happened last year with that tie?” Rossi asked.

Hotch put his hands over his blue tie and shot a look at Emily. Her face remained neutral.

“That was a flagrant foul.” Hotch said. “It was clearly unnecessary roughness.”

“You won't have to worry about it if you dress appropriately.” She replied.

“I have to say your shoes are all wrong, sir.” Penelope added.

“You're dressed like a girl.” Hotch felt the need to defend himself.

Garcia wore a dark blue dress covered with small yellow stars like Wonder Woman. There was a blue and white gingham scarf covering her hair with her red pigtails poking out the back. Matching Wellies were on her feet. She carried her cape-like coat over her arm.

“I am a girl; and a spectator. What's your excuse?”

JJ smirked, bending down to double tie the strings of her Nikes. Hotch sighed and said he was going to change a bit. Rossi said he would hold the elevator for him. Reid was still looking around at all of them wondering what was going on. It was just a few days from Christmas and this time last year he was already in Las Vegas.

It was the first holiday he’d spent together with both parents since he was seven years old. Spencer needed a few days to mentally prepare for the event. His mother and father were friends again. They may have been even more than that but Spencer was going to need more than a few days to mentally prepare for that.

“The boy is meeting us downstairs.” Penelope said when the elevator door finally opened. “I think he’s been waiting for six inches of snow since the summer.”

They piled onto the elevator as Hotch quickly walked from his office to join them. He was still wearing his blue slacks but had covered his dress shirt with a fleece pullover. Adidas sneakers replaced the spiffy shoes he always wore, while a blue skully hat covered his head and ears.

“You look like an Unsub.” Morgan said laughing.

“Not funny, Derek.” Hotch mumbled.

“No,” Rossi shook his head. “That was funny.”

Everyone started laughing but Hotch kept his straight face. He crossed his arms to emphasize how much he wasn’t going to laugh. The team was unmoved. Down in the lobby Kevin was waiting. They all signed out and walked through the doors out into the bright afternoon.

The sky was white and snowflakes the size of quarters still fell. Meteorologists said it was going to be a white Christmas after all; they were predicting over a foot of snow by the time the Nor’easter was through. That didn’t matter to the BAU right now…they only needed six inches for their game.

“The rules are the same as last year.” Rossi said as they made their way to a nice spot in the nearly deserted parking lot. “Lynch, you place the markers.”

Kevin took the four flares from Dave, placing them to make a large square around where they were all standing.

“I think we should have a review.” Hotch said, once again cutting his eyes at Emily. “In the clutch, there are some of us that can be forgetful.”

“Should I call your mama, Hotch? I think you might want to cry on her shoulder.” Prentiss said.

Spencer raised his hand. They all turned to look at him.

“I don’t think you have to raise your hand to speak, Spencer.” JJ said.

“Though it may be something to take under consideration.” Hotch added.

“What’s going on?” Reid asked. “All I know is ‘it’s on’, whatever that means.”

“Spencer, this is what we call football.” Penelope said.

“Oh, like the Red-skins.” He smiled, feeling good that he knew what she was talking about. Sometimes he had no idea what was going on. Spencer was getting better with going with the flow.

“No, Reid, more like…Da Bears!” Rossi said.

“What?”

“Don’t confuse him even more.” Emily playfully punched Dave’s arm. “We’re playing football Spencer. Last year when we were stuck at Quantico during that massive storm Dave came up with the idea. We needed to blow off some steam before we went stir crazy up on the 24th floor. Its fun and we all need to have more fun.”

“But its snowing.” Reid observed.

“Yeah,” JJ nodded. “This is the fun part.”

“It is?”

“You're the official scorekeeper and referee.” Morgan said.

“I can do that…I think. What do I do?”

“If someone runs past one of those flares with that ball its seven points.” Hotch said. “If someone kicks the ball past those flares, its three points. Unnecessary roughness is not allowed, which means Prentiss will get flagged a lot.”

“And Hotch will get thrown in the snow.” Morgan added snickering.

“You toss the coin to see which team goes first.” Rossi handed Reid a quarter.

“There are teams?”

“There’s getting ready to be. Aaron, I’ll give you the opportunity to pick first since you're gonna lose.”

“You annoy me.” Hotch replied rolling his eyes. “I pick Morgan.”

“That’s right.” Morgan high-fived his boss.

“I got Prentiss.” Rossi said.

She grinned, going to stand beside him. Hotch picked JJ and Rossi took Lynch as the last member of his team. He assured the tech analyst that just because he was picked last didn’t mean he wasn’t good. He’d proven himself to have heart last year when they beat Hotch’s team 7-0.

“I'm not going home with a loss this year, boys.” JJ said, cracking her knuckles as she stretched her legs. “Make it count.”

“Before we get started, I would like to put the wager on the table.” Rossi said. He did a little jog in place to get his blood pumping.

“Losing team does winning team’s paperwork for a month.” Hotch replied.

“I love it.” Prentiss jumped up and down.

“Are you sure you want to do that? You and JJ have kids…it’s not fair to saddle you with all that paperwork.”

“I think you should be more concerned about yourself and Prentiss.” Hotch said. “Lynch isn’t on our team; you two are going to drown in color-coded crap.”

“Say that five times fast.” Rossi shot back with a devilish grin. “Let’s get it started.”

“Reid!”

“Yeah, Hotch?” he ran over to where they were all standing. There was snow everywhere; the wind started to pick up.

“Toss the coin up, Rossi calls it in the air.”

“Don’t throw it too high Spencer,” Rossi said. “You need to catch it.”

“Right.” He nodded. Taking a deep breath, he threw up the coin. Rossi called heads as it fell back to Earth and landed in Spencer’s palm. He opened it and they looked at it.

“Tails.” Hotch said smiling. He took the football from Rossi and moved across the line Kevin drew in the snow separating the sides of the field.

“Go Kevin!” Garcia cheered, jumping up and down.

Morgan looked at her. “Aww damn, baby girl, really?”

“Sorry sweet cakes, I'm really torn here.”

“I bet. C'mon, Hotch, let’s show them how it’s done.”

The Unit Chief nodded as they got into position. Rossi rubbed his hands together, crouching down in front of Hotch.

“Hut, hut!”

Hotch got ready to throw the ball; Prentiss was heading right for him. A sack was imminent but Morgan got to Prentiss before she got to Hotch. He took her out, both of them falling in the snow. Hotch threw the ball to JJ. She took off running, hustling through the snow past Rossi and heading for the flares.

“Lynch!”

JJ was quick but she was no match for Kevin, who took her around the waist, lifted her off her feet, and spun her around.

“Woo!” Prentiss cheered as she got up out of the snow, giving Morgan and Hotch the look. “That’s how we play the game folks.”

Her opponents knew the game had just begun. How it would end was anyone’s guess.

***

Hotch groaned, leaning his neck back on the rim of the bathtub where the towel rested. He folded the warm rag and covered his eyes. It had been a long afternoon. They all got rides home in emergency vehicles since 18” of snow had fallen since the morning when they arrived at the BAU. It was better than last year when they were stuck in Quantico for nearly three days when a blizzard hit. This kind of weather used to be rare. There was frequently snow in winter but this was ridiculous.

“Hey, I brought you a present.”

He didn’t move when he heard the voice. It was actually a little hard to move as everything was stiff. The hot water and the Epsom salt helped but he couldn’t soak all night. Hotch would stay there as long as he could though.

“Can you hear me? Are you alive?”

“Barely.” He mumbled.

“But I bought you a present…don’t you wanna see it?”

“Are you naked?”

“Yes.” She replied.

Hotch lifted the rag a bit, smirking when he saw that Emily was not. But she did have a bottle of beer in her hands. He reached for it.

“You're the best, baby, the absolute best.” He covered his eyes again but took down half of the bottle of Sam Adams.

“Well I guess it’s the least I can do since you're gonna be drowning in paperwork well into the new year.” Emily replied.

“Don’t rub it in.”

“At least I didn’t tackle you this time.”

“No, but Kevin did. He is much heavier than he looks…much heavier.”

“The boy’s a bull.” She did her best to stifle her giggle. Hotch took the smack down like a man. His team got a field goal afterwards but Rossi’s gang took it 14 to 10.

“Don’t remind me.”

There was silence in the bathroom for a few minutes and then Emily sang Aaron’s name.

“Yes, baby?”

“I have another surprise for you.”

Hotch hoped he didn’t have to look up for him to see it. He was just starting to relax, his muscles were finally starting to adapt to the hot water. It was a good feeling.

“Just give it to me.” He replied.

“OK.”

Hotch could only smile when he felt Emily climb into the tub and straddle his lap. One of his arms immediately went around her waist as she took the bottle of beer, sipping from it. Then she put it on the bathroom floor.

“How are you feeling?” she asked, kissing his face.

“Like Patrick Ewing in the fourth quarter during his last season with the Knicks.”

“Isn't that basketball?”

“Yeah but the pain is still the same.”

“You looked good out there today.”

“You look good now.” Hotch peeked from underneath his rag. Then he took it off altogether. Emily Prentiss was a beautiful woman; there was no doubt about that. Naked she was like a work of art. He was probably biased but was also sure many men would agree with him. Not that he wanted any of them to see her naked. Surely they imagined it though.

“Next year I'm picking Kevin. I think he might be a ringer.”

“Did you notice Rossi was the only one not covered in snow when it was all over?” Emily asked.

“I wanted to push him down but I think that would’ve made me a sore loser.”

“A little bit, yeah. You know what I want to do?”

“Mmm, tell me.”

“I want to tickle your back.”

“What?” Hotch raised an eyebrow.

“Sit up some.”

Emily held on to the sides of the tub, bracing herself as Hotch sat up. He leaned forward so that his back was not resting on the tub and put his forehead on her shoulder. Emily starting running her fingers up and down his wet back, alternating between tickling and massaging with her whole hand.

“Mmm, baby, that feels wonderful.”

She smiled as her fingers walked across his skin. Hotch moaned, tightening his grip on her hips as he kissed her shoulder.

“Know what I want?” he asked.

“I can guess.”

“And there's massage oil in the nightstand drawer.”

“I think it’s your favorite.” Emily said.

She stood, getting out of the bathtub and grabbing a towel. She quickly dried off and wrapped it around her. Hotch took the hands Emily held out for him.

“I'm gonna make you feel all better, Agent Hotchner.” She kissed him.

Hotch sighed, holding her close. He was starting to feel better already. They would surely be home tomorrow as the snow hadn't stopped falling just yet. An early night and a late morning with Emily would make up for a brutal afternoon…with Emily. Well, no one could ever say their life together wasn’t a great adventure. He was having more fun than he ever thought possible.

***

  



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